A Happy Monk |
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"Our food is scanty, our garments rough; our drink is from the stream and our sleep often upon our book. Under our tired limbs there is but a hard mat; when sleep is sweetest we must rise at a bell's bidding ... Self-will has no scope; there is no moment for idleness or dissipation … Everywhere peace, everywhere serenity, and a marvellous freedom from the tumult of the world. Such unity and concord is there among the brethren, that each thing seems to belong to all, and all to each ... To put all in brief, no perfection expressed in the words of the gospel or of the apostles, or in the writings of the Fathers, or in the sayings of the monks of old, is lacking to our order and our way of life." |
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| This description of his day was written by a monk called AELRED, who was Abbot of Rievaulx, Yorkshire. |
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Remains of Rievaulx Abbey > Photograph © Don Burluraux 2002 |
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